Rumors of the Motorola Droid 4 came out very quickly after the Motorola Droid 3 was released. So much that all of us were wondering what was going on. It has only been about 6 months since the Motorola Droid 3 was released, and leaks of the Droid 4 started coming in months ago. After realizing that we would soon be seeing another successor to one of the most popular Android devices in existance, rumors pointed towards a December release for the latest member of the Droid family. Since then everything has settled down, and we haven’t talked much about this smartphone in a while. A new set of details has been spreading around these past few days, though.

The Droid 4 looks promising, with all the specs that we would expect from a good device in late-2011, including support for Verizon 4G LTE. Not to mention the fact that the design is looking pretty sexy, assimilating the look of the Razr (but with a keyboard).

Possible release dates included December 8th and the 22nd, both of which have come and gone without a word from Big Red. A sudden appearance of the Droid 4 at the DroidDoes website (click on the image to the right for details) a couple of weeks ago had us all thinking that the day was coming. While the site was quickly pulled, we realized that Verizon is probably setting things up to include the Droid 4 in their website, which would mean that the device is probably not too far from being released. The 22nd definitely seemed like a great day for all the keyboard-lovers looking for a good Christmas present. [1]

The day has come, and is quickly leaving with no Droid 4 for us today it seems. And it is unlikely that it will be announced today/tomorrow, and released on a Friday (especially one so close to Christmas). We can assume that the device will not be here for in time to find itself under the Christmas tree.

What gives, right? We could wait a bit more. Or at least we thought it was “a bit,” until yesterday’s new rumors hit the internet. It seems like the Droid 4 might be pushed back for a February release.[2] Yes, the same February during which most of the CES super phones might be released. True, the Verizon 4G LTE market is a bit saturated right now, with the Motorola Droid Razr, HTC Rezound and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus all released in the last few months. February, though? Where is the love for the keyboard-lovers?

We know it is pretty hard to part from that physical keyboard. And with options becoming scarce, some might still want to wait for this bad boy. If you want to see more of this device, what appears to be official images of the device in multiple angles have recently leaked.[3] Take another look at it, and think of the idea of using that upgrade for another smartphone, because this one isn’t coming in a while.

What do you guys say? Are you willing to wait until February for the Droid 4, or have you moved onto other devices?

References

Hello, I am Edgar Cervantes. I am an avid Android fan, and keeping myself updated on the topic is part of my daily life. I will always work hard to give the best of me to our community of Android enthusiasts, and I am very honored to be part of this ship. Hopefully we can all enjoy sharing our knowledge and opinions!

Maybe it is just as well, seems like if they are not careful, Verizon could flood the market with too many devices. It does look like a very nice device, but maybe part of it is also planning for how they want to handle ICS too.

For the most part its for battery life. If it comes with the tegra 3 processor then it will have four cores with a companion core for basic things like the os and such so the battery life wont completely suck. This is pure speculation of course.

I was relieved someone finally included on the keyboard. But now they have removed them… why!?!? There are a lot of keys you could easily type with the droid 3 for which you will now have to open a menu. That won’t make it easy to write down a programming idea that pops in my mind, or update a website.

There’s a lot less print on the keyboard, but the white border around each keys has not made it any easier on the eyes, on the contrary…

I guess I won’t be waiting for the droid 4 and get myself a droid 3.

Or maybe there will be a European version (milestone 4?) with more keys anyway? Because releasing a keyboard-phone without the euro sign in Europe would be silly.

True, You’ll just see a tiny white (or light grey) border when the light is off. With the light on there will be a distinct illimunated border. And maybe when you look straight down onto the keyboard (with the light off) you won’t see it at all, But when I compare photo’s of the droid 3 and 4, They both look equally cluttered, even though there is a lot less text on the droid 4.

This is just getting frustrating. Verizon and/or Motorola have absolutely completely dropped the ball on this. The least they could do is at least match up launches so people who ended up buying a Droid a couple years back can upgrade to the new phone now that their contracts are renewing. The Droid 3 is just not an acceptable phone to purchase right now, it would just be a massive waste of money. Now we have to wait another month and a half for this? It might be time to start looking at other carriers.

What other carrier has a real high end android with a keyboard? About the closest you will get is the captivate glide which isn’t really high end or anything special. People are crazy to switch for a phone. No matter how good the phone is if the network is crap the phone will be too.

It is just frustrating when a phone is supposed to be coming out that you are looking forward to, and then Verizon just pushes it back into next year. I don’t think I would actually switch off of Verizon at this point, I just wish they had a phone with a keyboard that wasn’t worthless.

Maybe moto and verizon decided to push it back to have ICS ready and preinstalled? I mean moto did say it would take 4-6 months for that and most likely would be easier than issuing an ota which with moto have been very buggy in the past(droid x,x2)

It makes sense, I mean Verizon already has a strong holiday lineup, and if they added another phone that would really increase the inventory of some of the phones not being sold and sitting on shelves. Maybe with the delay they will have ICS preinstalled.

I was seriously considering moving from T-Mobile to get this. But with the recent news about the acquisition being abandoned and now this delay, I’m just going to get a SGS2 and get on with it. I have a family plan, so I can pass it down the line when/if T-Mobile gets a new superphone. ;^)

Frustrating news! Like many Droid 1 early owners, I’ve been eligible now for like 5 months for an upgrade. Droid 3 doesn’t do it with lack of LTE. The Razr almost gets there — but no keyboard, and really wide. We need the Droid 4! If they are delaying it — hopefully it will be to add a physical camera button – improve the camera shutter speed, and perhaps intro. it with a decent version of ICS. Otherwise — BRING IT OUT!

They’re kind of watering down the Droid brand if they release a successor merely 6 months after a release. Why can’t other manufacturers also release devices with physical keyboards to help with diversity?

It seems verizon wants to get as many people on their lte network and off 3g that they can. I mean droid x2 then bionic shortly after, droid 3 and this less than a year later, and experia play and supposedly a 4g model a few months later.

the Droid 4 is what the Droid 3 should have been. If this came out 6 months ago, it would have been killer. Now, with a 2/12 release, the specs won’t impress anyone. I suppose if it had ICS, and a great camera, then it would do OK. But to not release before the holidays was a big mistake. Bad move, big red, bad move.

I got the Galaxy Nexus, which I love. Can’t stand motoblur, but my wife requires a keyboard for her phone. She’s not due for an update until April, so we can wait. Sucks for others waiting. I know what it’s like … my upgrade was this past March, and I waiting until last weekend for the phone I wanted.

I too have an OG Droid and have been waiting patiently to use my upgrade.
I think that if this phone is released post CES, as it appears to be, users such as myself may just skip it all together and go for a MOTO Bullet or MOTO Jet (can’t remember which has keyboard) which will basically be a quadcore version of the Razr / Droid 4.

Moto and Verizon seem to be releasing a new “Flagship Android” phone every 4-6 weeks, artificially delaying the next to milk the supply line.

The Droid 3 was what most original Droid owners would have liked to seen as the Droid 2 and now the Droid 4 is what the Droid users would have liked to seen as the Droid 3. Moto / Big Red designing and marketing the two non-phones inbetween was just a “we can sell more phones {and extend more contracts} stratagy. “Give them just a little less than what we know they want and we can keep them coming back for more”. The smart Droid owner / users bought the Droid 1 and will not upgrade untill February, or sooner if the Droid 4 is released sooner. IMHO.

It’s a shame that hardware keyboards are so underrated these days. Not only the type nicer, it leave also more screenspace for the app or website itself. To me this second point is a dealmaker for qwerty phones. (now on my htc desire z / g2)

I’d be tempted to go ga-ga over this device if Motorola wasn’t such a bad company when it comes to locked bootloaders, untimely updates, and then updates that are super buggy after they make you wait 20 months for it to release.

I switched to the candybar style LG Revolution (from my Droid 1) so i could get 4G, but the original one died from the Gingerbread update and the replacement took the update but the physical buttons became unresponsive within an hour of use. I was allowed to get a Droid Bionic as an early upgrade and love it. Removable batteries should definitely be something Motorola sticks with, so I really hope the Droid 5 and whatever replaces the Bionic has this. Removable batteries and removable/expandable storage really need to stay!

I was trying to convince my wife to wait for the Droid 4, but now that it’s delayed I think she will have to settle for a Droid 3. Settling for the Samsung Stratosphere would seem like a bigger compromise because of the weaker single core processor and less internal storage. Don’t think 4G is as big of a deal as the processor and storage.

Heheh! She’s coming from an LG Ally that you can barely install 10 apps on without running out of internal memory. You have to root the thing to be able to move more apps to the SD. Not worth it now that she’s finally fed up with it enough to want a new phone.

I did the keyboard thing from the Moto Q days to Blackberry, to Droid to Droid 2. I thought I could never live without it. Then I got a 4.3 in screen with Swift Keyboard X, and after a week I didn’t even care anymore. I was typing much faster than with my keyboard.

Do yourself a favor and ditch the keyboard. There are so many great phone options out there!

I wanted it. I loved my physical keyboard on my OG Droid. People thought I was crazy, but my thumbs could fly like a 13 yr old girl when sending out texts. The no look text, the highly illegal driving text, emails so long my hands would be sore for an hour. But when I didn’t hear anything and the Galaxy Nexus dropped, I immediately forgot all about the Droid 4. I love my Nexus.

God, Verizon is just the fcking WORST. Myself and so many other Droid 1 owners were ready to fork over money for this thing only to be told that they don’t want to take it for another two months. So on top of renewing my contract and being forced to take 2gb/month over my current unlimited plan, I have to hold out even longer just to upgrade.

This is such a horrible business decision, if Verizon are so fickle about release dates they shouldn’t have teased this one to begin with. I don’t even need ICS immediately, I’m okay with having Gingerbread for two months and getting ICS OTA. Also Verizon are getting rid of FiOS for some astounding reason. Really the least competent corporation I know of right now.

I have large hands (can palm a basketball) and large fingers (not spindly). On-screen keyboards are an exercise in frustration for me. Impossible. Moreover, also due to the large digits the four-row keyboard of the previous Droid phones did not extend enough for me to allow me to easily press the buttons on the top row where many common letters sat. This phone looks to be the answer with its five-row keyboard. And it will be my next phone!

Honestly, any new top-tier phone that’s released better be not only ICS ready but *primed* for it. i.e. bigger screen and no hard keys on the screen. I think Mot dropped the ball on the Droid Razr by missing the ICS opportunity. If they also release this phone with ICS as an afterthought it’s going to be a sad thing IMHO.

I will happily wait. My Droid 2 Global is plenty fast for now. The Droid 4 is the first phone that has everything I want. And those people that are saying its “late”, you are idiots. It was never announced so can’t be late. Because a phone doesn’t release according to rumors does NOT make it late.

Looks like everything I want in an upgrade from a Droid 2, if it has Ice Cream, better screen in daylight, front camera and I am addicted to a keyboard! My upgrade is February, so for me the timing is good.

I have a droid r2d2. Dont get me wrong i love the thing. They keyboard is amazing and the screen is a great size coming from a basic phone (motorola rival). I saw the droid 3, and the no lte thing just killed the possibility of me getting it. The droid 4 or 5 would be wonderful. But the 4 must come with a removable battery. Not after my experience with the rival. The battery in it swelled up 3 times its normal thickness and almost exploded. So the removable battery is non negotiable for me now (as you can imagine being cheated from death by exploding battery). Dual core 4g lte with a full 5 row keyboard. I am getting so sick of using the alt button for numbers. Especially typing things like r2d2. But what i dont get is that everybody wants ics. I dont see all the hype from it. I watched the review videos of ics on the nexus, looked horrible. Looked worse than froyo. The ics bar at the bottom of the screen shaves off an inch from your screen size. I love gingerbread, and hope that motorola can customize ics enough to get rid of the vast majority of its defaults. Watch the nexus review, ics doesnt live up to the hype.

Maybe it is just as well, seems like if they are not careful, Verizon could flood the market with too many devices. It does look like a very nice device, but maybe part of it is also planning for how they want to handle ICS too.

For the most part its for battery life. If it comes with the tegra 3 processor then it will have four cores with a companion core for basic things like the os and such so the battery life wont completely suck. This is pure speculation of course.

I was relieved someone finally included on the keyboard. But now they have removed them… why!?!? There are a lot of keys you could easily type with the droid 3 for which you will now have to open a menu. That won’t make it easy to write down a programming idea that pops in my mind, or update a website.

There’s a lot less print on the keyboard, but the white border around each keys has not made it any easier on the eyes, on the contrary…

I guess I won’t be waiting for the droid 4 and get myself a droid 3.

Or maybe there will be a European version (milestone 4?) with more keys anyway? Because releasing a keyboard-phone without the euro sign in Europe would be silly.

True, You’ll just see a tiny white (or light grey) border when the light is off. With the light on there will be a distinct illimunated border. And maybe when you look straight down onto the keyboard (with the light off) you won’t see it at all, But when I compare photo’s of the droid 3 and 4, They both look equally cluttered, even though there is a lot less text on the droid 4.

This is just getting frustrating. Verizon and/or Motorola have absolutely completely dropped the ball on this. The least they could do is at least match up launches so people who ended up buying a Droid a couple years back can upgrade to the new phone now that their contracts are renewing. The Droid 3 is just not an acceptable phone to purchase right now, it would just be a massive waste of money. Now we have to wait another month and a half for this? It might be time to start looking at other carriers.

What other carrier has a real high end android with a keyboard? About the closest you will get is the captivate glide which isn’t really high end or anything special. People are crazy to switch for a phone. No matter how good the phone is if the network is crap the phone will be too.

It is just frustrating when a phone is supposed to be coming out that you are looking forward to, and then Verizon just pushes it back into next year. I don’t think I would actually switch off of Verizon at this point, I just wish they had a phone with a keyboard that wasn’t worthless.

Maybe moto and verizon decided to push it back to have ICS ready and preinstalled? I mean moto did say it would take 4-6 months for that and most likely would be easier than issuing an ota which with moto have been very buggy in the past(droid x,x2)

It makes sense, I mean Verizon already has a strong holiday lineup, and if they added another phone that would really increase the inventory of some of the phones not being sold and sitting on shelves. Maybe with the delay they will have ICS preinstalled.

I was seriously considering moving from T-Mobile to get this. But with the recent news about the acquisition being abandoned and now this delay, I’m just going to get a SGS2 and get on with it. I have a family plan, so I can pass it down the line when/if T-Mobile gets a new superphone. ;^)

Frustrating news! Like many Droid 1 early owners, I’ve been eligible now for like 5 months for an upgrade. Droid 3 doesn’t do it with lack of LTE. The Razr almost gets there — but no keyboard, and really wide. We need the Droid 4! If they are delaying it — hopefully it will be to add a physical camera button – improve the camera shutter speed, and perhaps intro. it with a decent version of ICS. Otherwise — BRING IT OUT!

They’re kind of watering down the Droid brand if they release a successor merely 6 months after a release. Why can’t other manufacturers also release devices with physical keyboards to help with diversity?

It seems verizon wants to get as many people on their lte network and off 3g that they can. I mean droid x2 then bionic shortly after, droid 3 and this less than a year later, and experia play and supposedly a 4g model a few months later.

the Droid 4 is what the Droid 3 should have been. If this came out 6 months ago, it would have been killer. Now, with a 2/12 release, the specs won’t impress anyone. I suppose if it had ICS, and a great camera, then it would do OK. But to not release before the holidays was a big mistake. Bad move, big red, bad move.

I got the Galaxy Nexus, which I love. Can’t stand motoblur, but my wife requires a keyboard for her phone. She’s not due for an update until April, so we can wait. Sucks for others waiting. I know what it’s like … my upgrade was this past March, and I waiting until last weekend for the phone I wanted.

I too have an OG Droid and have been waiting patiently to use my upgrade.
I think that if this phone is released post CES, as it appears to be, users such as myself may just skip it all together and go for a MOTO Bullet or MOTO Jet (can’t remember which has keyboard) which will basically be a quadcore version of the Razr / Droid 4.

Moto and Verizon seem to be releasing a new “Flagship Android” phone every 4-6 weeks, artificially delaying the next to milk the supply line.

The Droid 3 was what most original Droid owners would have liked to seen as the Droid 2 and now the Droid 4 is what the Droid users would have liked to seen as the Droid 3. Moto / Big Red designing and marketing the two non-phones inbetween was just a “we can sell more phones {and extend more contracts} stratagy. “Give them just a little less than what we know they want and we can keep them coming back for more”. The smart Droid owner / users bought the Droid 1 and will not upgrade untill February, or sooner if the Droid 4 is released sooner. IMHO.

It’s a shame that hardware keyboards are so underrated these days. Not only the type nicer, it leave also more screenspace for the app or website itself. To me this second point is a dealmaker for qwerty phones. (now on my htc desire z / g2)

I’d be tempted to go ga-ga over this device if Motorola wasn’t such a bad company when it comes to locked bootloaders, untimely updates, and then updates that are super buggy after they make you wait 20 months for it to release.

I switched to the candybar style LG Revolution (from my Droid 1) so i could get 4G, but the original one died from the Gingerbread update and the replacement took the update but the physical buttons became unresponsive within an hour of use. I was allowed to get a Droid Bionic as an early upgrade and love it. Removable batteries should definitely be something Motorola sticks with, so I really hope the Droid 5 and whatever replaces the Bionic has this. Removable batteries and removable/expandable storage really need to stay!

I was trying to convince my wife to wait for the Droid 4, but now that it’s delayed I think she will have to settle for a Droid 3. Settling for the Samsung Stratosphere would seem like a bigger compromise because of the weaker single core processor and less internal storage. Don’t think 4G is as big of a deal as the processor and storage.

Heheh! She’s coming from an LG Ally that you can barely install 10 apps on without running out of internal memory. You have to root the thing to be able to move more apps to the SD. Not worth it now that she’s finally fed up with it enough to want a new phone.

I did the keyboard thing from the Moto Q days to Blackberry, to Droid to Droid 2. I thought I could never live without it. Then I got a 4.3 in screen with Swift Keyboard X, and after a week I didn’t even care anymore. I was typing much faster than with my keyboard.

Do yourself a favor and ditch the keyboard. There are so many great phone options out there!

I wanted it. I loved my physical keyboard on my OG Droid. People thought I was crazy, but my thumbs could fly like a 13 yr old girl when sending out texts. The no look text, the highly illegal driving text, emails so long my hands would be sore for an hour. But when I didn’t hear anything and the Galaxy Nexus dropped, I immediately forgot all about the Droid 4. I love my Nexus.

God, Verizon is just the fcking WORST. Myself and so many other Droid 1 owners were ready to fork over money for this thing only to be told that they don’t want to take it for another two months. So on top of renewing my contract and being forced to take 2gb/month over my current unlimited plan, I have to hold out even longer just to upgrade.

This is such a horrible business decision, if Verizon are so fickle about release dates they shouldn’t have teased this one to begin with. I don’t even need ICS immediately, I’m okay with having Gingerbread for two months and getting ICS OTA. Also Verizon are getting rid of FiOS for some astounding reason. Really the least competent corporation I know of right now.

I have large hands (can palm a basketball) and large fingers (not spindly). On-screen keyboards are an exercise in frustration for me. Impossible. Moreover, also due to the large digits the four-row keyboard of the previous Droid phones did not extend enough for me to allow me to easily press the buttons on the top row where many common letters sat. This phone looks to be the answer with its five-row keyboard. And it will be my next phone!

Honestly, any new top-tier phone that’s released better be not only ICS ready but *primed* for it. i.e. bigger screen and no hard keys on the screen. I think Mot dropped the ball on the Droid Razr by missing the ICS opportunity. If they also release this phone with ICS as an afterthought it’s going to be a sad thing IMHO.

I will happily wait. My Droid 2 Global is plenty fast for now. The Droid 4 is the first phone that has everything I want. And those people that are saying its “late”, you are idiots. It was never announced so can’t be late. Because a phone doesn’t release according to rumors does NOT make it late.

Looks like everything I want in an upgrade from a Droid 2, if it has Ice Cream, better screen in daylight, front camera and I am addicted to a keyboard! My upgrade is February, so for me the timing is good.

I have a droid r2d2. Dont get me wrong i love the thing. They keyboard is amazing and the screen is a great size coming from a basic phone (motorola rival). I saw the droid 3, and the no lte thing just killed the possibility of me getting it. The droid 4 or 5 would be wonderful. But the 4 must come with a removable battery. Not after my experience with the rival. The battery in it swelled up 3 times its normal thickness and almost exploded. So the removable battery is non negotiable for me now (as you can imagine being cheated from death by exploding battery). Dual core 4g lte with a full 5 row keyboard. I am getting so sick of using the alt button for numbers. Especially typing things like r2d2. But what i dont get is that everybody wants ics. I dont see all the hype from it. I watched the review videos of ics on the nexus, looked horrible. Looked worse than froyo. The ics bar at the bottom of the screen shaves off an inch from your screen size. I love gingerbread, and hope that motorola can customize ics enough to get rid of the vast majority of its defaults. Watch the nexus review, ics doesnt live up to the hype.